What Is Master Data Management and Why Is It Important?
Poor data quality can negatively impact your business, which is why master data management is critical.
The master data collected by these disparate systems is often stored in multiple locations鈥攊ndependent from other systems鈥 data鈥攁nd changes made in one location can take time to be reflected in other systems. These data silos create disconnected, inaccurate, and unreliable data sets that your organization relies on to drive business initiatives.
That鈥檚 a problem.
Poor quality data is responsible for numerous business failures, including missed opportunities, wasted marketing efforts, ruined customer experiences, and decreased compliance. For example, a lack of data quality can lead to marketing reaching out to contacts who have opted out of certain communications or a salesperson making a mistake in a billing address, delaying receipt of payment.
Over time, poor data quality can have a significant impact on revenue, customer trust, and productivity. can help.
What Is Master Data Management?
Master data management is a set of processes, tools, and technologies used to centralize information about key entities involved in your organization鈥檚 business transactions. Examples of these entities include:
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Customers, employees, partners, vendors, suppliers
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Attributes, assets, and spare parts
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Contextual information
The primary objective of master data management is to create a single source of truth for an organization鈥檚 data. This means bringing together data from marketing, sales, supply chain management, and any other processes related to the entities listed above, and for every domain and business system.
How to Get Buy-In from the C-Suite
Despite research showing that only have a high degree of confidence in their organization鈥檚 data, it can be difficult to get buy-in from leadership to fund a master data management initiative. In large part, this reluctance comes from not fully understanding how poor quality data impacts almost every corner of the business.
Defining the value and benefits that master data management will deliver to the business can help get key stakeholders invested in the plan. Those benefits include:
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Revenue: Accurate data ensures that you send the right offers to the right people at the right time.
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Customer experience: A personalized and consistent customer experience across channels increases customer loyalty and boosts sales.
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Innovation: New product development is more efficient with accurate customer, supplier, vendor, and employee data readily available.
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Time: Accessing real-time data鈥攊nstead of relying on email and Excel鈥攄ramatically reduces the time-to-market for new products.
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Supply chain: Centralized information about available inventory, out-of-stock products, and vendor status improves process efficiency and customer service.
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Compliance: Accurate audit and reporting data are critical to avoid compliance and regulatory penalties.
How to Succeed in Industry 4.0
The manufacturing industry is in the midst of an evolution. The integration of computers and communication into the manufacturing process that began in the 1990s is now being replaced with advanced automation and smart technology.
The introduction of mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT), and smart sensors on the production line will be accompanied by high volumes of data. If harnessed properly, this data can drive decision-making, increase efficiency, and reduce waste on a large scale.
This new era of manufacturing technology is known as Industry 4.0, and it is the ideal use case for master data management.
According to Tyler Warden, Vice President of Product at 麻豆传媒视频, data is beyond essential for .
鈥淚f your data is not consistent, or if a sensor is saying a part is breaking down, but your ERP doesn鈥檛 have a consistent understanding of the part or can鈥檛 order it, the promise of Industry 4.0 falls apart.鈥
Warden鈥檚 comment, though directed at manufacturing, can apply to master data management in any industry. Here is an industry-agnostic list of the seven core efforts 麻豆传媒视频 recommends for successful implementation of a initiative:
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Identify and focus only on relevant data.
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Categorize data requiring human intervention first.
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Arbitrate data-related decisions across business locations and operating units.
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Utilize local and global data experts and owners for fast and realistic data-based decision-making.
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Include data sourced from throughout the IT landscape, not just enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
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Take an Agile approach to deploy ongoing sprints of data improvement.
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Create a meaningful link between business and technical metadata to drive and streamline decision-making.
Improve Data Quality with Master Data Management
Master data management isn鈥檛 easy, and it isn鈥檛 a silver bullet. But with an ongoing effort to orchestrate processes and enforce data quality, you can be sure that your is accurate and trustworthy.
Implementing Master Data Management enterprise-wide can be overwhelming. Take the first steps in understanding who to involve and where to start.
Now that you understand the importance of master data management, it鈥檚 time to implement it in your organization. The next step is to decide whether you should take this on yourself or hire a trusted partner.
Learn how the 麻豆传媒视频 Knowledge Platform can help you master your data.
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